ArticleEvolutionary psychology : an international journal of evolutionary approaches to psychology and behavior
Do the Low WHRs and BMIs Judged Most Attractive Indicate Better Health?
Article in Evolutionary psychology : an international journal of evolutionary approaches to psychology and behavior. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 19 citations in OpenAlex.
- Evolutionary Theories and Men's Preferences for Women's Waist-to-Hip Ratio: Which Hypotheses Remain? A Systematic Review.Frontiers in psychology · 2019Pooled it
- Substantial but Misunderstood Human Sexual Dimorphism Results Mainly From Sexual Selection on Males and Natural Selection on Females.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Male Mating Expectations in Brazilian and American Samples.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
- The Epistemology of Evolutionary Psychology Offers a Rapprochement to Cultural Psychology.Frontiers in psychology · 2020Review
- Do the Low WHRs and BMIs Judged Most Attractive Indicate Higher Fertility?Evolutionary psychology : an international journal of evolutionary approaches to psychology and behaviorArticle
- Does Nubility Indicate More Than High Reproductive Value? Nubile Primiparas' Pregnancy Outcomes in Evolutionary Perspective.Evolutionary psychology : an international journal of evolutionary approaches to psychology and behaviorArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
It is widely claimed that in well-nourished populations, very low female waist-hip ratios (WHRs) together with low body mass indices (BMIs) are judged attractive by men because these features reliably indicate superior health and fertility. However, studies show that mortality rates are higher in women with low BMIs than in women with average BMIs and are inversely related to BMI in subsistence populations. Measures of current health in women of reproductive age have not been similarly studied. We analyze large U.S. samples of reproductive-age women and show that controlling for other factors known to affect health, those with low BMIs (<20), WHRs, or waist/stature ratios did not have better health than those with values in the middle range, and there was no relationship between subsequent health outcomes and BMI in early adulthood. Lower self-reported BMIs were linked to poorer health and an increased risk of infection. However, based on recent U.S. natality data, primiparas with lower BMIs had a lower risk of an operative delivery and of gestational hypertension. Beyond these two parity-restricted effects, relevant studies and new tests fail to support the view that women with the very low BMIs and WHRs consistently judged attractive are generally healthier than women with average values; significant correlations were consistently in the opposite direction.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.